baby picture

Thursday, November 1, 2007

chains of feedback

cause the feedback sez the feedback is the law

(this section is for helpful sites, correspondence, ideas, suggestions, idle gossip while we wait for the apocalypse

HOW TO: make an anti global warming feedback loop in your back yard out of recycled building materials, bicycle inner tubes, compost and paper plates. It's simple and easy. HERE. LET ME SHOW YOU. First take a few Barbie Dolls, grind them up in a chipper, then blenderize them in the compost. Ha Ha juuussst kidding. Once you get the model of your AGFL built, invite your friends over for a party. Talk. Talk about everything. Then talk about your choices. Then talk trash. Talk is the way we access random DUMB luck and inventions. Then AFTER you establish your REAL community do internet conferencing to find the virtual, invisible community. Just remember that community depends on thousands of little real communities just like yours.

Make lists of fantastic Green businesses, ones that offer choices to the little guy and those that are just good to know about because they give HOPE, and like my Chinese fortune cookie said one night,

"He who has hope has everything."

And then I walked into the grocery store and surfed the magazine rack and ran across an article about a guy who died out in the woods. He had food, shelter, everything except gas for his car, but the thing he really died of was he lost hope.

In contrast working with nature is sometimes the most fun you can have with your clothes on.

Greywater is fun. Like making a water sculpture out of your sink and shower. Look:

GREYWATER HARVESTING

http://www.greywaterguerrillas.com/

And take a tour of industries doing amazing things training little one celled animal circusses:

Also check out article in New Scientist: Oct. 20-6-07, International Biochar Inst.

Look at Global Exchange.org:

http://www.globalexchange.org/war_peace_democracy/oil/sfoilspill

check out green credit cards at yr browser:

http://www.treehugger.com/files/2006/05/green_credit_ca.php

included herein for yr impuraisal

an exchange I had with the CitizenReNu installer, Marc Barnes. I was surprised at his willingness to hear my objections. Hope the bigwigs are equally open to common sense.

I was told it was a group of investors who came out of the U of A.

But I won't hold that against them.

I think I'll include this type of chain of correspondence in the blog.

Thanks for getting back to me so soon. I was delayed in my response, both in signing & mailing the preliminary contract and in this reply, because my head exploded on contact with your rationale for taking panels off my roof if I was pumping too much power back into the grid.

I seriously doubt any of us prospective customers volunteer for your program out of any real sense that we're going to do better than break even on this deal.* If ReThink actually makes a difference i.e. becomes competitive Big Oil is probably going to conspire to keep the price of their energy close to yours, and if they can't or just don't want to, do you think they're going to sit idly by while you grab their market share? The dirty tricks they've used in the past are amply and aptly noted in the solar history book "A GOLDEN THREAD" and they haven't undergone any dramtic character changes since: witness GM's discontinued limited edition of the "Vixen", a 7' x 21' (ca 1 ton) van with a BMW TDI diesel that gets 28 mpg and their shredding of the EV1 despite the objections of thousands of satisfied leaseholders. DON'T get me STARTED!

My point is if our motivation is mainly sacrifice for the common good why shouldn't that be ReThinkReNu's also? In otherwords, give TEP the goddam money. What does it hurt you to leave a few extra panels up? The money's not important. Getting our earth back is. Besides that your best survival strategy is YOU WANT EVERYBODY TO MAKE MONEY because the number crunchers will crunch you if they don't make money. And even if that doesn't happen WHAT GOES AROUND COMES AROUND. Isn't that supposed to be what this renewable energy enterprise is all about in the first place?

So I had to swallow all my misgivings about signing up with a company starting out with such a cockamaimey business philosophy and say, o well nothing's perfect and nobody's going to do everythig the way I think they should, and at least I'll be doing SOME good etc. except it still feels kind of sore. I'm supposed to operate from the ethic of sacrifice while you guys run with the ethic of business as usual?

Well, OK, I probably don't get a vote on this, but would you please tell me what I could do to get a few pieces of my exploded head on the table?

I ain't mad, I'm just feeling a little grumpy about the whole thing. Look forward to seeing you when you come over to evaluate my site.

Thanx

Dennis

* IF WE WANT OUR WORK, OUR MONEY, AND ULTIMATELY OUR LIVES TO HAVE MEANING, AT LEAST IN ECOLOGICAL TERMS, WE HAVE TO MAKE SACRIFICES. GOING TO BIOFUELS COSTS ME MORE THAN STAYING WITH FOSSIL. HYBRIDS RIGHT NOW ARE WAY PRICIER THAN GAS GUZZLERS. I LOST A ONE-OF-A-KIND CONTRACT SWITCHING FROM RED STATE REPUBLICAN VERIZON TO WORKING ASSETS. NO MATTER WHAT KIND OF PHOTOVOLTAIC DEAL I GET WITH CITIZENRE, TECHS FOR SUSTAINABILITY, OR KYOCERASOLAR, AS FOR ALL FORMS OF ALTERNATIVE ENERGY, AS A GAMBLER, I MIGHT AS WELL FOLD 'EM AND WALK AWAY FROM THE TABLE. BUT IT ISN'T ABOUT THE MONEY, THAT'S JUST HELLOGOODBYE DON'T GET ATTACHED (TO MUCH OF ANYTHING, REALLY). WE DO IT BECAUSE WE REALIZE WE HAVE TO "BE THE CHANGE WE WANT", AND WHETHER THE PLANET SURVIVES THE SELF ACCELERATING GREENHOUSE FEEDBACK LOOPS OR NOT, BEHAVE AS IF OUR ACTIONS WERE THE MODEL FOR EVERYONE ELSE'S.

I DON'T KNOW WHAT YOUR COMMUNICATION WITH CITIZENRE IS LIKE, BUT MY MESSAGE TO THEM, IS THE CONSUMER'S MOTIVATION AND COSTS OUGHT TO BE ONE OF THE PRIMARY ISSUES ON THE TABLE RIGHT NOW. WE SHOULD BE ABLE TO REST IN PEACE AT NIGHT KNOWING THAT ANY AMOUNT OF OVERPRODUCTION WHATSOEVER IS GOING BACK INTO THE GRID REGARDLESS OF WHO MAKES MONEY ON IT. I DON'T BELIEVE THIS IS JUST AN ETHICAL OR IDEALISTIC PRINCIPLE, I'M CONVINCED IT IS A PRINCIPLE OF SURVIVAL FOR YOUR COMPANY AS WELL AS FOR THE PLANET. TEP, BIG OIL AND BIG GOVERNMENT ARE GOING AFTER YOU AS SOON AS YOU'RE NOTICEABLE. WHEN YOUR SHARE VALUE GOES UP, ONE WAY OR ANOTHER THE NUMBER CRUNCHERS ARE GOING TO GET A PIECE OF THE ACTION, EITHER BY BUYING UP THEIR COMPETITION, OR BY THE SAME DIRTY TRICKS THEY'VE USED IN THE PAST OR BY GOING FAKE GREEN. THEY HAVE ALREADY DONE ALL THE ABOVE TO A CERTAIN EXTENT BUT IT'S BOUND TO GET WORSE. THE BEST CASE SCENARIO IS: OTHER ENTREPRENEURS WILL BEGIN REAL GREEN BUSINESSES, (AND THAT WILL ALSO GENERATE EVEN MORE FAKE GREEN). BUT IF YOU ARE ALL ABOUT CLEAN ENERGY AND NOT THE MONEY, YOU CAN KEEP YOUR CONSUMER BASE WHICH YOU WILL HAVE TO DO IF YOU SURVIVE IN A COOPERATIVE COMPETITION WITH CORPORATE INTERESTS THAT HAVE DESTROYED EFFORTS LIKE YOURS IN THE PAST AND CAN CONTINUE TO DO SO UNTIL A RUNAWAY GREENHOUSE EFFECT TURNS EARTH INTO A VENUS LIKE HELL . (ACCORDING TO THE LATEST UN IPCCC ANNOUNCEMENT THIS WON'T TAKE MORE THAN A FEW YEARS UNLESS WE DO SOMETHING DRASTIC)

I DON'T SAY THIS TO DESTROY HOPE, BUT RATHER THE OPPOSITE. IT'S GOOD THAT ALTERNATIVE ENERGY IS DECENTRALIZED RIGHT NOW, BECAUSE IT GIVES THE LITTLE GUY, AND ULTIMATELY ALL OF US, A FIGHTING CHANCE. IT'S LESS VULNERABLE TO PHYSICAL AND ECONOMIC TERRORISM. BUT SOONER OR LATER TO AVOID MASSIVE BUYOUTS, IT MAY HAVE TO RESORT TO A SMALL BUSINESS AMERICAN VERSION OF THE EUROPEAN UNION. IF IT GETS BOUGHT UP ANYWAY, LET'S HOPE PVS ARE BIG ENOUGH BY THAT TIME THAT THEY CAN'T BE SHREDDED WITHOUT IT BEING DONE PUBLICLY (BECAUSE COCKROACHES HATE SUNLIGHT).

MY MAIN POINT IS TO PUT THE CONSUMERS' ISSUES ON THE TABLE FIRST AND FOREMOST. WE'RE NOT BUYING BECAUSE WE THINK WE CAN SAVE MONEY, WE'RE BUYING BECAUSE IT'S THE RIGHT THING TO DO. AS LONG AS RETHINKRENU TAKES IN AND RENEWS THAT SACRIFICE I BELIEVE IT CAN SURVIVE. CONSUMERS AREN'T AS STUPID AS THEY USED TO BE. THERE'S A CONSTANTLY GROWING NUMBER OF THEM WHO WILL STICK WITH YOU THROUGH THICK AND THIN AS LONG AS THEY KNOW YOU'RE DOING THE RIGHT THING BY THE ENVIRONMENT. GIVE BIG OIL ITS MONEY. THE MONEY ONLY MATTERS TO THE EXTENT THAT YOU, AND THE PLANET, CAN SURVIVE. ONE THING YOU COULD DO TO COUNTERACT THE GREENHOUSE FEEDBACK LOOPS IS TO INSTALL A COMMUNICATION FEEDBACK LOOP WITH YOUR CUSTOMERS. THE LITTLE GUY DOESN'T GET MANY REAL CHOICES THESE DAYS. GIVE US A CHOICE, A VOICE AND A VOTE IN YOUR EFFORTS AND YOU'LL CREATE A CONSTITUENCY NOBODY CAN TAKE AWAY FROM YOU.

I sent this up the chain so you can be heard (everyone please read below). If it were up to me, there would be an option to overproduce because I wholeheartedly agree that it isn't about the money for me either. I would be happy to overproduce by 5 -10% just to help reduce Americas dependence on limited resources. In the perfect world we would have more choices and with enough voice, maybe we can regain that option. We know the government hasn't done its job since the Industrial Revolution began. And hopefully, one citizen of planet earth at a time, we can make a big change.